RAF personnel records stolen on hard drives

Friday 26 September 2008 19.01 EDT
First published on Friday 26 September 2008 19.01 EDT

The government was facing a fresh data loss embarrassment last night after thieves stole files containing the records of thousands of RAF personnel.

Police were called in to investigate the incident in which computer hard drives with information on present and former staff were stolen from the Service Personnel and Veterans Agency at RAF Innsworth, Gloucester, on Wednesday.

A spokesman for the MoD said: "We can confirm that an investigation is being conducted by the MoD police, with the support of Gloucestershire police into the apparent theft of three USB portable hard disk drives."

It was not immediately clear what information was on the disks, but the spokesman said: "We are taking this extremely seriously."

The loss is the latest in a succession of disquieting security breaches after the high profile disappearance last November of two CDs containing child benefit records - the personal details of almost half the UK population.

In the nine months since, top secret files on al-Qaida and Iraq's security forces were found on a commuter train and handed in to the BBC by a member of the public, followed a few days later by a second batch of files on terrorism being found on a train.

Last month, a memory stick with names, addresses and expected release dates of all 84,000 prisoners in England and Wales went missing after being left by a contractor in an office over the weekend.